Archives for October, 2007

I would like to thank the speakers and all of you who attended our NERD Club (New England RNA Data Club). One amazing aspect of our club is the diversity of the topics included. Last night we had talks about mTOR signalling (TOR = Target of rapamycin) and how it activates the translation of certain…

Last week I saw an awesome lecture by Gaudenz Danuser who has a lab at the Scripps institute in San Diego. It has taken me a week to fully digest what was said, plus I haven’t had the time to jot this down. Over the past few years the Danuser lab along with Claire Waterman-Storer’s…

Some beautiful images taken by my good friend Jan Schmorandzer are being displayed at the M.W. Offit Gallery in the Gottesman Library at Columbia’s Teacher’s College. For more information visit: www.CellPortraits.blogsplot.com www.CellPortraits.blogspot.com (The blog includes a cool video of Jan preparing his samples.)

Over the past month, many have asked me to reinstate this Friday feature. So after a 6 month hiatus, I present to you this week’s mystery campus: hint: One might think of an answer But is it true? Trying to disprove it Is all that’s left to do. If this makes any sense to you,…

Last night, the US Senate approved the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that includes a provision requiring all NIH funded studies to be available free of charge (i.e. Open Access). Furthermore, the bill passed 75-19 preventing any possibility of a veto. And the Inhofe amendments? From Open Access News: Inhofe withdrew his anti-OA amendments earlier in the…

I’m sick and tired of this debate of “do you believe in evolution?” Who cares? Who freakin’ cares? You see to me belief is cheap. Any person can claim to believe in any old idea. So what if Obama and Hillary believe in evolution and Huckabee believes in creationism? What I want …what I expect…

OK here is some background. AAP: American Association of Publishers. They are behind PRISM (Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine), a lobby against Open Access (OA). This organization was set up based on suggestions from Eric Dezenhall, a lobbyist has worked for Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling and ExxonMobil. ACS: American Chemical Society. This…

This site says it all. If you are wondering why the American Chemical Society is fighting open access, the answer is simple … ACS management receives bonuses that are tied to the revenues generated from ACS publications. They are also paid in part with money collected from membership dues (yes, if you are a member…